Implied Play Styles: An Analysis Tool to Understand Player Behavior and Meta-Game Emergence

The document introduces the concept of "Implied Playstyles" as an analytical tool to understand player behavior and the emergence of meta-games. It posits that these playstyles are specific ways of playing a game, suggested by and emerging from the attributes of in-game entities and objects. This concept aims to explain why certain idiosyncratic strategies emerge, become prevalent, or to predict how a game will be played.

Implied Playstyles are distinguished from Aarseth's "implied player" by being more specific, focusing on strategic behavior necessary for playing a game "well" or "as intended" by the designer. The paper argues that these playstyles are coded into the game through the combination of mechanics and the attributes of in-game objects, characters, and units, emphasizing that the combination of mechanics with varied attributes can lead to significantly different player behaviors.

To demonstrate the application of this concept, an exemplary analysis of units in Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void (Blizzard Entertainment 2015) and Sins of a Solar Empire (Ironclad Games 2008) is conducted. This analysis, for instance, explains the evolution of specific strategies in Starcraft 2's electronic sports scene, such as Protoss players "walling in" and Zerg players' need for open terrain battles. The research suggests that identifying these implied playstyles can be linked to emerging meta-games and influences how game characters are represented and performed by players, as exemplified by the "insectness" of the Zerg race in Starcraft II. The research was funded by the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 program.